The objective of this breeding program was to develop a plant with the following characteristics:
(a) Exceptionally large bright pink flowers, relatively flat, with overlapping petals that have numerous ripples. PA0 (b) A plant of medium size with good form and habit for use in various landscape plantings that in winter hardy when left outside in freezing temperatures during the winter. PA0 (c) Each extra large flower remains open and flat for two to four days. PA0 (d) A blooming cycle period from midsummer to frost.
This new plant was developed over a period of 14 years by cross pollinating parent plants which have many desirable characteristics. The last hybridization to create `Pink Wonder` was made by taking a heavy application of pollen from `Bill's Giant` (a very large mostly white hibiscus flower) to `Nova` (a red, white and pink hibiscus flower) in the summer of 1991. The seed from this `Nova` parent first bloomed in 1992. The ancestry of the parents include Hibiscus moscheutos, Hibiscus militaris, and Hibiscus palustris.
We have asexually reproduced this plant by root crown division and tip cuttings and the new plants produce the exact same characteristics of the `Pink Wonder` that first bloomed in 1992. This hybridization and sexual reproduction was done in Park Ridge, Ill.